T E E T A B L E T , November 29th, 1962.

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

VOL. 200, No. 5871

LONDON, NOVEMBER 29th, 1952

NINEPENCE

FOUNDED IN 1 8 4 0

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

JOHN FOSTER DULLES Europe and Asia as seen by the Incoming Secretary of State THE CHURCH IN YUGOSLAVIA TODAY Impressions o f a Visit to Zagreb. By Lt.-General H . G. Martin THE COMMEMORATION OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER

An Indian Writes on the Setting. By Bonny Correa IRAQ IN TURMOIL CHRISTIANS AND JEWS The Disturbances in Baghdad A Meeting at Strasbourg

GOLDEN IN CORNWALL The Centre o f B . Cuthbert Mayne’s Apostolate. By P . A . Boy an THE DUTCH MASTERS THE MIND OF CROCE

By David Sylvester

By Roland Hill

ON DIVINE PROVIDENCE MEDITATIONS IN ADVENT

By Mgr. R. A . Knox

By Fr. Agnellus Andrew, O .F .M .

MORE FOOD FROM THE COMMONWEALTH vA

M INISTERS in the Commonwealth Conference meet with the knowledge that the seven years since the end of the war have shown very clearly that the Commonwealth needs to think much more about the production of food. This is the fundamental reorientation which can be made, and must be made, to reduce the excessive dependence on food imported from North and South America, pre-eminently meat and wheat, whether from Canada, the United States, or Argentina. Although at the moment a balance has been achieved between the sterling and dollar worlds, it is extremely precarious as long as what the sterling area buys is more necessary to it than what it sells is to the dollar countries.

ment of the terms of trade is all the other way, and it is manufactures that become, cheaper and food dearer. But that does not mean that any Government, inside or outside the Commonwealth, will do more than change its emphasis, to pay more attention to agriculture. All will still seek to nourish their industrial life, and the industrial interests, including the Trade Unions, are very well placed to protect themselves, if the need'arises, against democratically elected politicians. Cities are politically stronger than countrysides, more easily mobilized politically, with greater power of influence and expression. This again is particularly true of Australia.

More food production involves much buying of machines largely made in the United States which should, as far as possible, come from here. But we also need capital investment to improve our plant, and both needs must be met at the expense of current consumption here.

We have one great fact in our favour. The closing of Communist countries from the Elbe to Shanghai leaves the Commonwealth countries and the rest of the sterling area as the great natural market for dollar exports.

There are some commodities—tobacco is a conspicuous example—where it might be possible to re-educate taste and make a great dollar saving. But the last thing the Commonwealth Ministers have in mind is to present the issues as in any way a trade war. Canada, one of the great dollar countries, is in the Commonwealth, and in the Conference, and the relations of the others with the United States are so very close that there is the strongest mutual recognition of a common interest in each other’s prosperity.

But if, broadly speaking, much of the strain has come about through rapid industrialization, particularly in Australia, it is partly because it is one of the lessons of the twentieth century that a country is important in war strictly in proportion to its industrial power, and is listened to in international affairs on the same basis. It is no longer true that there is an immense trading advantage in being the seller of manufactured goods and the buyer of food and raw materials. The move

The Commonwealth would undoubtedly gain, ju st as Western Europe would gain, if it could act as a whole, and specialize more. But the whole political development for a century has been in the other direction : and the British public, in particular, should realize that the political ideal of separate independence, which it has proclaimed since the middle of Queen Victoria’s reign, involves these economic consequences. Convertibility and Discrimination

The plans made for the future trade of the world before 1945 were drawn up in America, reflected the native American optimism, and, in the event, very much under-estimated the stricken and impoverished condition of the post-war world, and its dependence on American help, for in the war years there had been roughly a doubling of American productive power. American business naturally wanted access to every market, but it also wanted to keep the American home market protected.

Commonwealth Conference delegates, and particularly the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, continually re-affirm that their ultimate aim is a convertible pound ; and, provided that this convertibility is not nullified by Government controls over the movement of funds, it will be one day a great source of strength, and all the countries whose money is sterling or based on sterling will gain. But it is equally clear that